No New Defenders at Arsenal This Window

Arsenal has suffered some terrible bad luck with defensive injuries this season.  We lost Sagna, Gibbs and Jenkinson all with a 17 days in October, but the loss that has hurt us most was the loss of Santos in December.  Santos was an attacking full-back and gave us extra attacking options something that has been lacking in recent weeks.

With the loss of Santos and news that Gibbs had a further setback, Wenger stated that he will look at a full-back for a loan option as we do not wish to drop points because we are short of full-backs. This statement was made mid-December.  Arsenal have an extensive scouting network and great contacts throughout the world.  We are now mid-January, having dropped 6 points this year and still no sign of any defensive re-enforcements, neither  at full-back nor central defence and there will not be anybody arriving either.

Once again Wenger makes a statement of new recruits and the result is zero activity.  There are two reasons for no players coming back.

By the end of January Vermaelen, Sagna and Gibbs will all be back in contention for the starting line-up, so Wenger will try and patch-up the defence once more against Manchester United and Bolton Wanderers in the league and hope we do not drop any more points.

The second reason why Wenger will not enter the transfer market, is that there is no room in the squad for an overseas player.  In fact unless Wenger sells one of Almunia, Squillaci, Arshavin or Rosicky, there is no room for Henry in the squad!  So unless we have a minor clear-out there will be no new signings this window. The maximum number of non-home grown players is 17.

Arsenal Squad 2011-12 (Non-Home Grown Players)

Almunia

Fabianski

Sagna

Santos

Vermaelen

Mertesacker

Koscielny

Squillaci

Diaby

Arteta

Arshavin

Benayoun

Rrosicky

Chamakh

Henry

Park

Van Persie

Gervinho